Protesters to put Easton prison neighborhood on canvas

October 16, 2002|By Tracy Jordan Of The Morning Call

Before Northampton County's prison complex might change an Easton neighborhood, artists will preserve it on canvas Sunday with a paint-in.

"We're not calling it a paint-out, like a lot of artists do when they do paint outside," said organizer William Marley. "We're calling it a paint-in, just like a lot of the sit-ins during the civil rights movement."

Marley and Tanya Allison-Kewley, both city residents who have spoken at several public meetings against the county's $24 million prison expansion, expect more than a dozen artists to set up their easels around the 100 block of S. Sixth Street.

The street will be closed 1-6 p.m. to accommodate the artists and a block party, featuring a disc jockey, chalk art for children, poetry readings, a neighborhood crime watch organizational meeting and a potluck dinner.

Allison-Kewley said the event is public and invitations were sent to several statewide political candidates, who are scheduled to be in the city later in the evening for debates at the State Theatre.

"It's to bring attention to the neighborhood and also bring the residents out a little bit more," said Allison-Kewley of S. Fifth Street. "We're raising our families here, and we don't want a prison. There's lots of land in Northampton County where it wouldn't be destroying what's here."

County officials initially planned to demolish the city block between S. Union, Spruce, Lehigh and S. Sixth streets, but it altered its plan last month to spare about a dozen houses.

Instead, the county has concentrated on a mostly vacant lot at S. Union and Washington streets, which is in a zoning district that doesn't allow prisons.

Although City Council appears unwilling to rezone the land, county officials have said they will wait for its vote expected on Nov. 13 before deciding how to proceed.

However, county officials have said they have no plans to look outside the city for a prison site.

"Any kind of expansion, even if it doesn't knock out that specific block, is detrimental to Easton as a whole," Allison-Kewley said. "There's a lot of negative things that come with a prison. It will make Easton known as a big prison town."